Pinnacle Video Spin

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Editors' Review

Pinnacle's premium video suites offer pro-level editing and production tools. Pinnacle VideoSpin is a free video suite that offers similar capabilities but in a simpler package. It's specifically designed to make it easy enough for beginners to create high-quality videos and slideshows to save, burn to disk, or post online.

VideoSpin lacks Pinnacle Studio's SmartMovie feature, DVD burner, and advanced audio tools. You can open your VideoSpin projects in Pinnacle Studio, but not vice versa, and once something's been opened in Studio, it won't open anymore in VideoSpin. You must register to download VideoSpin, but registration includes 30 days of free support. VideoSpin is free, but some of the optional codecs it uses aren't; they're free to use for 15 days, should you decide to install them.

VideoSpin's simplified user interface includes the usual preview player and multitrack timeline with a basic control and file-browsing section. The layout has two tabs, Edit and Make Movie. We started by opening a movie we'd taped in VHS and converted to MPEGs. VideoSpin extracted the scenes and displayed them in a view that we could configure to show scene previews with or without duration and other data and in several layouts. VideoSpin isn't the fastest video editor we've encountered, but it's thorough and also easy to use. We simply dragged and dropped scenes onto the timeline. We could add text overlays, music, and audio with various built-in utilities like the Text Editor. This offered not only a wide range of Standard fonts but also a Custom option and a Favorites tab. We could import video from any compatible device or drive in our system with the Import Media tool, add a variety of sound and video effects, insert photos, and make movies with the help of an easy-to-use Make Movie wizard.

VideoSpin produced good results with compatible files such as AVI and MPG. It's easy to use but a little slow, and some important stuff is left out of the freeware, such as Flash and DivX compatibility. Whether extra codecs are worth buying to handle such files depends on how VideoSpin suits your needs.

Editors' note:This is a review of the trial version of Pinnacle Video Spin 1.1.2.542.

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Publisher's Description

Using existing media on your PC, you can create fun and compelling videos and slideshows to share with friends and family. Save the final product as a file, burn it to a DVD, or upload it directly to the Web.

Version 1.1.2.542 is a small upgrade that includes Windows Media format as the upload format to the Web.

What's new in this version:

Version 1.1.2.542 is a small upgrade that includes Windows Media format as the upload format to the Web.

Very easy to learnGreat, simple, common sense UIDid what I wanted it to do

Cons

Not as many gadgets, but it's FREE!

Summary

For anyone who thinks this program is too hard to learn, I really don't have an answer for them, as it is the simplest video editor out there. The only con, is, it's the simplest editor out there, but hey, for free, it does what you want, when you want it to, and quickly.Yes, if you want to work with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and related formats beyond a 15-day trial period, you'll need the Spin Pack add-on. Luck for me, I can use Avi, WMV, FLV, ect, and for free, I'm jazzed! Great product!!!

Videospin is a bit like Comic Life and Windows Movie Maker combined.It has simple editing features which makes it easy to learn and the text and grpahic overlays (ALA comic life) makes it way better than moviemaker. It has a nice audio editing feature -where you can lower the level of the audio at any point without having to clip the video. Other features are similar to moviemaker so the learning curve by switching from WMM to VS is small.

Cons

Registration is a nuisance - even after following their instructions it didn't work first time. To get the full functioning like import and editing Mp4 videos (otherwise limited to wmv and avi)you have to purchase the codec pack.Support is non existent - it's like "you're buying a cheap product - so suffer the consequences!!" if you have any problems expect to wait a looooong time for a reply - if you're lucky!!. if often crashes!!

Summary

It's great when it works - which is more a rarity. With a little more development and bug fixes and proper support - this could be a great low end video editor. It has some great features which would have gladly paid a little more for a more stable version, and one that is backed by the developers.If you want hassle free software - this isn't it. Stick with moviemaker or save for a higher end video editor.

Tried free version then when I went to BUY the codec pack to finish my project I had to update to the 2.o version which COMPLETELY destroyed my project. My project opened just fine until the purchase of $14.99 then it would never open again only to freeze at startup. I am so unhappy I have demanded a refund (took forever to find any kind of contact info even their email contact has no address). Now I need to start over from scratch. My Christmas gift ruined!!

Video Spin is easy to learn and use! Definitely worth the money! I was told about it and am glad to have a video editor to get my videos up and running!

Cons

No cons that I can think of!

Summary

Video Spin is easy to learn and use! Definitely worth the money! I was told about it and am glad to have a video editor to get my videos up and running! I work a lot on the computer, time is important to production schedules. This is a program worth mastering if your new to editing.

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